2004-2005 Humboldt County Grand Jury Report re. CDBG First Time Homebuyers Program in Rio Dell (starts on pg. 11)Exerpt from Public Works Investigation Report detailing the unpermitted building being done by the former Public Works Director with the full knowledge and complicity of the building inspectorFull Public Works Investigation Report here8.5.14 City report shows thousands of dollars saved by terminating contract with Kemp Inspection for building inspection services - salary plus permit fees total $19,1753.75 in savings in the first 5 months alone. Think about how much the residents could have saved if they did this long ago! Rio Dell terminates its agreement with Kemp Inspection Service for misrepresentating his certification status (inactive) and more... Read the 3.27.14 letter from the city to Kemp "I trust you realize that you have placed the city in an untenable position, perhaps for years." 2014 agreement with Kemp Inspection Service where the city will pay for the standard insurance on Kemps behalf after raising building permit fees substantially. This sets the precedent for the city buying independent contractors standard insurance of course. |
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| This is the permit sticker that appears on our new electrical box. Notice there is no permit number entered. That is because the project manager (Larry Miller of RCAA) and the contractor (Joe Buccola) never applied for a permit for any of the work they did. Arnold Kemp of Kemp Inspection Service (the Cities building inspector) performed the inspection and issued this permit without any permit application or payment for the permit. See the letters below where Mr. Kemp states he was never here on the date he signed the permit. |
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| The inspection card on the right shows a fraudulent date of inspection with Arnold Kemp's initials. The one on the left was done by the County building inspector on our second round of work and is correctly done and dated. The inspection cards are required to be posted at the construction site. The one initialed by Mr. Kemp did not appear until the County inspector requested it. I had asked repeatedly about it but Mr. Kemp told me it did not exist. He stated he never uses inspection cards and if there is a problem, he leaves a "little note." The date of 2/4/04 for the electrical and rough plumbing was fraudulently entered by Mr. Kemp because that is the date that we paid for the permits out of our own pocket rather than it being paid out of the rehabilitation money as required. Notice at the top of the inspection card where it says the rough electrical and rough plumbing inspections must be done before the walls go back up. By Feb. 4th we not only had the downstairs walls back up, we were living in the house for a little over a month. It would be awfully hard to inspect the electrical and plumbing at that point, wouldn't it. |
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| Arnold Kemp stating "as you know I was not involved with your project..." Again, look at the electrical permit sticker to see when Mr. Kemp was actually doing the inspection. |
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| Arnold Kemp stating that the first inspection he did was on 2/4/04 of the rough electrical and rough plumbing. This date is cited by Mr. Kemp because that is when we paid the permit ourselves. The project manager, Larry Miller of Redwood Community Action Agency, and the contractor, Joe Buccola, never applied for any permit let alone paid the permit fee's out of the housing money as required. How is it possible to have the City building inspector come out and do an inspection without any permit application or fee's paid? You will have to ask the City or Mr. Kemp that one. It certainly isn't legal. |
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| This was mailed to us after we refused to agree to not repair the failing foundation of the home as demanded by the project manager, Larry Miller of RCAA. I talked to Karen Dunham about this since I had been told a permit was not required at that time since we were still doing the removal of debris. Ms. Dunham told me that this was essentially a preemptive stop work order. We didn't need one at that particular moment but we were going to need one soon. We were not allowed to work on the house until we were forced to agree to allow Mr. Miller to bring in his contractor, Joe Buccola, and let them take over the work. Interestingly enough, Miller and Buccola were allowed to work on the house without ever applying for any permits whatsoever. No permit was paid for until Feb. 4th, 2004. I guess the need for permits depends on who your friends are. |
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| The Federal investigation is continuing, as far as we know. We will post any information we receive regarding this. For now, see the Grand Jury investigation report. They did a very good job of looking into this situation and they had to wade through a great deal of documentation and interviews. We appreciate all their work and their careful consideration of the facts. Rio Dell wrote a response that completely dismissed the entire investigation. |
| Here is a link to the engineer's report done on our home by LACO Associates. We fought for a long time to have a professional come look at the house, including offering to pay for it ourselves early on in the process. RCAA's Larry Miller refused to bring in an expert when we disagreed on the necessity of repairs. Instead he brought in Joe Buccola, a local contractor that RCAA uses frequently (he then proceeded to crack the rafters in the home and install kitchen cabinets that fell off the walls). The many structural problems with the house were very obvious and any person who knew anything about construction could have determined what repairs to make. When the posts and piers of the foundation don't touch each other, fix it. When the support beams are bowing under the load, fix it. Remember that this report was done long after RCAA and the city building inspector said everything was fine with the home. The building inspector didn't find any code violations when he inspected the house on 10-30-03 and the kitchen floor was opened up to reveal the post and pier foundation system. |
